CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: THE WEIGHT OF FORGIVENESS
(Mirabel's POV)
Some truths set you free.
Others leave scars that never heal.
This one did both.
The Aftermath
Silence ruled the cavern.
Not the tense silence of battle.
Not the fearful silence of waiting.
A mourning silence.
The kind that follows tragedy long after the screams have faded.
Alaric's memories still lingered around us.
The city.
The ritual.
The thousands of souls torn apart in a single catastrophic moment.
An entire civilization reduced to fragments trapped between existence and oblivion.
And at the center of it all—
One man.
One terrible mistake.
Alaric stood alone before the network.
The countless silver threads stretched from his body into the darkness.
A prison.
A burden.
A punishment.
For centuries he
